Barbie

Barbie is a 2023 fantasy comedy film directed by Greta Gerwig, who co-wrote the screenplay with Noah Baumbach. Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Mattel Films, and Heyday Films, it is the first live-action theatrical feature based on the Barbie fashion-doll line. Margot Robbie plays Stereotypical Barbie, with Ryan Gosling as Ken; America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, Will Ferrell, and Michael Cera appear in supporting roles. Helen Mirren narrates. In the film’s candy-colored Barbie Land, Barbies hold every major civic and professional role while Kens mainly seek Barbie’s attention. After Barbie begins experiencing troubling changes—flat feet, thoughts of death, and a cold shower—she visits Weird Barbie, played by McKinnon. Weird Barbie tells her to enter the Real World and find the girl playing with her. Ken secretly joins the trip. In Los Angeles, Barbie learns that the real world is not governed by women as Barbie Land is. She is briefly arrested after an encounter involving a girl named Sasha, played by Ariana Greenblatt. Sasha initially rejects Barbie, while Sasha’s mother Gloria, played by Ferrera, is revealed to be the Mattel employee whose anxieties and alterations to her own Barbie have affected Stereotypical Barbie. Mattel’s chief executive, played by Ferrell, tries to return Barbie to her box. Ken, meanwhile, embraces a distorted idea of patriarchy after observing men’s social power in the Real World. Returning first, he remakes Barbie Land into Kendom, where horses, fur coats, and male dominance replace the previous order. Barbie becomes despondent, but Gloria’s monologue about contradictory expectations placed on women helps restore the Barbies’ self-awareness. The Barbies then undermine the Kens’ unity and regain control of their society. The film ends without simply restoring its opening arrangement. Ken confronts the fact that he has defined himself through Barbie, and Barbie tells him that he must discover who he is independently. Ruth Handler, Barbie’s creator, appears as an elderly woman portrayed by Perlman and encourages Barbie to choose a human life. In the final scene, Barbie, now using the name Barbara Handler, goes to an appointment with a gynecologist. Barbie opened in the United States on July 21, 2023, alongside Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, prompting the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon. Its soundtrack included Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” and Gosling’s character song “I’m Just Ken.” The film received eight Academy Award nominations and won Best Original Song for “What Was I Made For?”